Tide turning against clubs, codes fear
Sport Otago chief executive James Nation wonders whether we have reached a tipping point as sports clubs battle with rising costs and volunteer fatigue.
Southern Football boss Dougal McGowan reached for the word catastrophic when describing the impact the Online Casino Gambling Bill will have if it goes ahead as proposed.
Otago Rugby Football Association chief executive Richard Kinley is concerned that if the clubs cannot access adequate funding, they will have to pass on the extra costs and that could have a chilling effect on participation rates.
Hockey Otago general manager Andy McLean said anything that made "funding harder to obtain was worrying".
A report commissioned by the New Zealand Amateur Sport Association found national volunteer numbers had dropped 28% between 2018 and 2024.
It also highlighted funding as a key issue, noting 72% of clubs were concerned about their long-term financial sustainability.
Bill seen as threat
The proposed Online Casino Gambling Bill looms as a major threat.
If it goes ahead in its current guise, it will potentially undermine the funds available through class-4 gambling, which has propped up community sport since tobacco sponsorship was outlawed in New Zealand in the 1990s.
Increased user charges for Dunedin City Council grounds and facilities have piled more pressure on clubs.
It all paints a grim picture for community sport, Nation acknowledged.
And neither do there appear to be many options.
"Clubs are really loathe to put up their membership fees any more than they have, and so that's having an impact because all the costs for the clubs have certainly gone up," Nation said.
The Dunedin City Council's sinking lid policy on class-4 gambling was starting to bite, McGowan added.
"If you have a look at the types of organisations that get support from the class-4 gaming industry, it's such a broad spectrum of the community.
"They help us with rent. They help us with insurance. They help us with staff salaries so that we can get staff out into the schools to support kids being active."
"Without that, I think it will have such a significant effect on what it means to be a community in New Zealand."
The proposed Online Casino Gambling Bill threatens to further chip away at the available pool of funds.
The licensed online casinos would not be compelled to make community funding grants as the Bill stands.
Former New Zealand Cricket boss Martin Snedden is leading the charge to get into the ear of the decision-makers.
Submissions close on August 17 and McGowan encouraged sports organisations to engage in the process.
"The flow-on effects for this could be catastrophic for community activity and sport," McGowan said.
Kinley said it was important to impress upon the government the challenges "sport will face across the sector if this should be approved in its current form".
"If clubs and sports can't access other forms of funding to support the community game, it'll be passed back to participants," he said.
"So potentially the cost of participating in sport will increase, which is something that none of us want to see.
"If we have less people participating in all sports because of financial difficulties, that could be potentially quite detrimental to society as a whole."
McLean said hockey was in the same boat.
"Class-4 gaming funding is really important in terms of supporting what we can deliver to the community," he said.
"We want hockey to be as accessible as possible.
"Anything that risks reducing the amount of class-4 funding that's available is obviously of concern ."
Costs rising
The other half of the battle to keep the books in balance is the rising expenses.
Everything has gone up from the halftime oranges to the user charges for Dunedin City Council grounds and facilities.
The latter has been quite a hike.
McGowan said user charges have more than doubled since 2018.
He has seen Southern Football's bill grow from $42,202 to $98,119 in 2025.
It has been reluctant to pass that extra cost on to members and has instead opted to reduce the number of fields it uses to bring down the cost.
Southern Football has budgeted a loss of $58,000 this financial period but that may double, McGowan said.
The association cannot keep absorbing the costs. McGowan said he was going to have to have an awkward conversation with one club about its ongoing financial viability.
It could lead to the club closing. He declined to say which one.
Nation said the problem was widespread.
"I think clubs are really having to have those conversations about their financials and how do we make sure that we are viable."
Fewer volunteers
The burden of helping bridge the gap between rising expenses and revenue often falls to volunteers, who are in dwindling supply.
"They're there for the love of the sport and helping people out and not for the rewrite of their constitution and chasing up funding all the time," Nation said.
"It's not a recipe for a great future.
"I think there's a really core pool of volunteers that most clubs have. They may be ageing.
"They may be struggling to bring people in. But I think the good clubs out there have got good structures in place, and they look after their volunteers, and they're doing well.
"So it seems like for the level of people that are playing, it is pretty healthy across the board in Otago.
"But I think there is a bit of a tipping point there ... and it's not going to take much to turn it to being a bit of an exodus."
It is a gloomy assessment that Nation walked back a little by adding he does not believe the volunteer base has thinned as much in Otago as in other parts of the country.
McGowan had similar thoughts.
"We've got a very strong group of volunteers, some of them with considerable experience, who do an amazing job. And it's a big job now.
"It's not like it used to be, where you'd just turn up on a Saturday and put the nets up.
"They are running large organisations which have large cash flows.
"We know our volunteers are required to do more and more, and it almost becomes like a second job for many of them.
"I think it's got harder and harder, so I think we will start to see an impact on that pretty soon."
Kinley said referee and coaching numbers were holding, but they did not keep statistics on overall volunteer numbers.
"I would say that what I've found over the years, and this is a general comment, is that we tend to follow the things that happen in other areas of the country.
"While we're holding OK, it's certainly an area that we need to focus on. I don't want us to see us following what the rest of the country has done."
adrian.seconi@odt.co.nz
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Otago Daily Times
8 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Unions take govt to court over pay equity law changes
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Newsroom
13 hours ago
- Newsroom
Unions launch legal action over pay equity changes
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NZ Herald
2 days ago
- NZ Herald
Invercargill's Richardson Group: From sawmilling to $2 billion empire
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Allied Petroleum, part of the HWR Group, supplies fuel across Southland and beyond. Photo / File In 1948, R Richardson Ltd was purchased from Robert by his son, Harold, and in 1951 became H G Richardson & Sons. While steadily growing its portfolio in Southland in the ensuing decades, the company was eventually split between Robert's grandsons, Bill and Ken, and in 1984 was renamed H W Richardson - the initials are Bill's full name, Harold William Richardson. In 2025, HWR Group is co-owned by Shona Richardson, her daughter Jocelyn O'Donnell, and Jocelyn's husband Scott O'Donnell. Scott O'Donnell was good friends throughout high school with Bill's son, Harold Richardson, who was tragically killed in a car accident the same year he and Jocelyn were married in 1995. Jocelyn and Scott serve as directors, while Albert Brantley is director and Anthony Jones is CEO of the group. Bill Richardson Transport World has more than 300 classic and vintage cars on show. Photo / File While some ventures now reach across the country, the group's presence is most deeply felt in the city of its founding – in fact, its influence is nigh impossible to miss. At the helm of this business giant sits the privately owned HWR Group, headquartered in HWR Tower – an eight-level high-rise on Esk St, the city's tallest building, complete with a private penthouse at its apex. The $26m mixed-use complex was completed by Naylor Love in June 2023, winning the Gold Award at the NZ Commercial Project Awards in May this year. With over 2500 employees across 49 companies in New Zealand and Australia (according to its 2024 sustainability report), and annual revenues exceeding $2 billion, the group's reach extends far beyond Southland. in 2023, HWR launched their first hydrogen truck in Invercargill. Pictured: HWR CEO Anthony Jones and driver Craig McKenzie. Photo / George Heard Yet their hold on Invercargill remains tight, shaping much of its economic and physical landscape. 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HWR has nonetheless doubled down on the technology. According to its 2024 sustainability report, it reported a 17% decrease in fuel used per kilometre travelled across its New Zealand operations, and has rolled out eight dual-fuel hydrogen-diesel trucks capable of cutting carbon emissions by up to 34%, with a further 39 on order. The company is also building Southland's first commercial hydrogen refuelling station, due to open in 2025, with capacity to produce 450kg a day. 'They are absolutely fantastic people. You could meet them somewhere and you would never know the influence that they have, they're very humble about it,' Clark said. Carla Forbes, director at the Invercargill-based marketing company Naked Creative and former president of the Southland Business Chamber, describes Scott and Jocelyn O'Donnell as 'two of Invercargill's most committed champions, quietly shaping our city's future while preferring to remain out of the spotlight'. Their influence, she said, 'cannot be overstated – they have fundamentally changed the skyline and breathed new life into our city, always with one unwavering focus: making decisions for the betterment of Invercargill and Southland". One of the clearest examples of this vision is the redevelopment of the Invercargill city centre. Scott O'Donnell. Image / HWR In 2017, HWR Property and Invercargill City Property Ltd (Invercargill City Council-owned) formed HWCP Management Ltd to spearhead a sweeping CBD overhaul. The plan involved acquiring nearly 90% of the properties in the block between Esk, Dee, Don and Kelvin Sts, demolishing dozens of heritage and other buildings, and replacing them with a revitalised retail, hospitality and entertainment hub. It's hard to mistake the impression that the Richardson Group's diversification has been deliberate. Jocelyn O'Donnell. Image / HWR Over the years, they've acquired fuel distribution networks, concrete suppliers, contracting firms, and property holdings, steadily consolidating their grip on industries that underpin much of the country's infrastructure. Allied Concrete, for example, has pushed New Zealand's cement-replacement rates to around 9% – well above the national average of 2-3% – avoiding an estimated 9500 tonnes of CO2 in 2023-24, the equivalent of planting 175,500 native trees. Companies owned by HWR include Allied Petroleum, Allied Concrete, Southroads, Southern Transport, Allied Bulk, Freight Haulage, Southdrill, Southrail, Hokonui Rural Transport, Dynes Transport, Christchurch Ready Mix Concrete, Andrews Transport, Clearaway, Bulk Energy NZ, Bulk Liquid Solutions, Cromwell Bulk Distribution, Dunedin Carrying, Gibbs Firewood & Coal, Heavy Haulage, Herberts Transport, Icon Logistics, Kapuka Heenans Transport, Phillips Transport, Purdue Bros Cranes, Ranfurly Transport Ryal Bush Transport, Ryal Bush Transport Ashburton, Te Anau Healy Ltd, Transport Repairs, Transport Services, Upper Clutha Transport, Winton Cranes, Specialised Environment Services, Allied Materials, International Speciality Aggregates, Kilmog Quarries, Southern Aggregates, Pacific Fuel Solutions, NZ Independent Cement, Change Fuel Technologies, Mytransport and HWR Hyrdrogen. The central city redevelopment, led by HWR Group, has reshaped Invercargill's CBD with new retail, hospitality, and mixed-use spaces. Photo / Ben Tomsett One of their most visible, and arguably most strategic, assets is Transport World – a transport museum-cum-tourism attraction that draws thousands of visitors annually and injects valuable tourism dollars into the region. HWR's footprint also extends into community initiatives that don't directly turn a profit but have high local impact. The company funds Chatbus, a free mobile counselling service for children in ten Invercargill schools; supported the creation of the Hawthorndale Care Village for dementia patients, and sponsors the Stewart Island beach cleanup. Smaller projects, like helping build the Lynley Hogg Memorial Playground in Mandeville or backing the Street Smart driver training programme for teenagers, are seen within the group as part of 'impact investing' in Southland's future. But the family's reach is not without controversy. HWR Tower, Invercargill's tallest building, serves as the headquarters for the Richardson Group and a landmark in the city's skyline. Photo / Supplied Last month, Scott O'Donnell – long-time HWR director and former managing director – was appointed to KiwiRail's board for a three-year term ending in 2028. The move was praised by Minister for Rail Winston Peters for bringing freight and logistics expertise to the state-owned enterprise – yet Treasury raised reservations, as reported by the National Business Review. A conflict-of-interest management plan now requires O'Donnell to recuse himself from KiwiRail matters south of Oamaru. O'Donnell is one of four directors on the board of Dynes Transport Tapanui, which in July 2024 donated $20,000 to Peter's party, NZ First. The company is also a key partner in a government co-invested regional infrastructure project: an $8m loan toward developing an inland port in Mosgiel. Ben Tomsett is a multimedia journalist based in Dunedin. He joined the Herald in 2023.
